#OSS RT @nickgernert: Inaugural WordPress for Government & Enterprise event kicks off with @photomatt & @digiphile pic.twitter.com/4c7Htlqg5k

— Alex Howard (@digiphile) May 6, 2014

I had a blast interviewing Matt Mullenweg, the co-creator of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, last night at the inaugural WordPress and government meetup in DC. UPDATE: Video of our interview and the Q&A that followed is embedded below:

WordPress code powers some 60 million websites, including 22% of the top 10 million sites on the planet and .gov platforms like Broadbandmap.gov. Mullenweg was, by turns, thoughtful, geeky and honest about open source and giving hundreds of millions of people free tools to express themselves, along with quietly principled,  with respect to the corporate values for an organization spread between 35 countries, government censorship and the ethics of transparency.

60% of Web doesn’t use a CMS, says @photomatt. 78% of top 10MM websites aren’t on @WordPress. Hopes to change both. pic.twitter.com/mMqv15l1ba

— Alex Howard (@digiphile) May 7, 2014

After Mullenweg finished taking questions from the meetup, Data.gov architect Philip Ashlock gave a presentation on how the staff working on the federal government’s open data platform are using open source software to design, build, publish and collaborate, from WordPress to CKAN to Github issue tracking.

We’re supporting a government-wide effort to manage data as an asset, says @philipashlock, of http://t.co/Djm3iKByc7 pic.twitter.com/FeSFiJWf5h

— Alex Howard (@digiphile) May 7, 2014

Making private issue tracking at @usdatagov public: http://t.co/t6uXoImA6R #opengov #oss pic.twitter.com/zP6G6IIGc7

— Alex Howard (@digiphile) May 7, 2014

http://t.co/9LvdNKigf1 provides “WordPress-as-a-Service” to the U.S. federal government, says @philipashlock #oss pic.twitter.com/lQUXD8tQPQ

— Alex Howard (@digiphile) May 7, 2014